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 Forum index » Meta » General META Discussion
Professional ARGsmiths
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Ofiuco
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Joined: 27 Nov 2005
Posts: 365
Location: The Void

 		Professional ARGsmiths
I am curious:

How many professional ARGmaker groups are there? I am of course familiar with the obvious - 4orty2wo, the Art of the Heist people... okay, I just reached the limit of my knowledge, I admit. By 'professional' I guess I mean they are companies or agencies or what have you that put on high-budget games. And what games have they made?

As a follow-up, are there many semi-permanent grassroots teams?

Just interested to see how many established groups actually exist.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:14 pm
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Marrec
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Joined: 12 Sep 2004
Posts: 303
Location: Las Cruces, NM

 		Re: Professional ARGsmiths
Ofiuco wrote:
I am curious:

How many professional ARGmaker groups are there? I am of course familiar with the obvious - 4orty2wo, the Art of the Heist people... okay, I just reached the limit of my knowledge, I admit. By 'professional' I guess I mean they are companies or agencies or what have you that put on high-budget games. And what games have they made?

As a follow-up, are there many semi-permanent grassroots teams?

Just interested to see how many established groups actually exist.


There are a few more "Pro" companies out there. Mind Candy is another one... and, uh... that's all I got.

But there are (or were) semi-permanent grassroots teams. The team that made Lockjaw and Metacortechs(x). Not sure if it was the exact same people, but pretty much.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:04 pm
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krystyn
I Never Tire of My Own Voice


Joined: 26 Sep 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Is not Chicago

 		Yar, Karetao was a team of 6 (+1 major contributor) for Lockjaw, and then 8 for Metacortechs.
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:10 am
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

 		Re: Professional ARGsmiths
Marrec wrote:
Ofiuco wrote:


As a follow-up, are there many semi-permanent grassroots teams?

Just interested to see how many established groups actually exist.


But there are (or were) semi-permanent grassroots teams. The team that made Lockjaw and Metacortechs(x). Not sure if it was the exact same people, but pretty much.


And I would be willing to work with the team that made Orbital Colony again if someone had the kernel of another game for us to work on (after I have had some time to decompress from Orbital Colony for a few months, please!) I really enjoyed working with the contributing group we ended up with. Washed many bad tastes from many and sundry experiences out of my mouth, for which I am extremely grateful. (OK not all of them were real bad, just, things that were not my cup o' tea). It certainly re-energized me!
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:42 am
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colin
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Joined: 13 Oct 2003
Posts: 810
Location: Australia

 		As far as professionals go I would say 4orty2wo and MindCandy.

Art of the Heist is tricky because it involved a lot of people/groups. It was really a marketing company that produced it, where as 42 and MC are really only ARG companies. As ARG become more accepted more marketing companies will use them.

As far as grassroots go I would say 'Karetao' (although I don't remember that title actually being attached to MU in the credits) and Dave Szulborski, although he's not a 'team'.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:08 am
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Ehsan
Entrenched

Joined: 09 May 2003
Posts: 992

 		Don't forget VirtuQuest and Brooke Thompson who have a more targeted audience, but can still be considered professional.

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:35 am
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FLmutant
Decorated


Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 244
Location: Orlando, FL
colin wrote:
Art of the Heist is tricky because it involved a lot of people/groups. It was really a marketing company that produced it, where as 42 and MC are really only ARG companies.


Yeah, I bet that is confusing for people, but "marketing company" isn't totally a fair shake. There was an advertising agency and their client (McKinney-Silver and Audi) who retained some of us as collaborators to conceptualize and implement the beast (which included Campfire and GMD Studios).

If you pressed Haxan_Mike to describe Campfire, it would probably come down to "storytelling" as the central concept. If you pressed me to describe GMD Studios, it would probably come down to "community" as a central concept. Neither company would probably describe themselves as "only ARG companies" ... but I wonder if 42 or MC would either.

Collaborations, though ... those are the wave of the future, and ARGs make the most of that (since they can appropriate any production texture you might choose to cast your glance at.) So the idea of "a lot of people/groups" is probably a trend you'll continue to see in both the grassroots and commercial ARG spaces.


Brian

PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:35 pm
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Marrec
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Joined: 12 Sep 2004
Posts: 303
Location: Las Cruces, NM
FLmutant wrote:
Collaborations, though ... those are the wave of the future, and ARGs make the most of that (since they can appropriate any production texture you might choose to cast your glance at.) So the idea of "a lot of people/groups" is probably a trend you'll continue to see in both the grassroots and commercial ARG spaces.


I just love asking you questions.

So do you think in the future we are going to see succesful companies or groups that focus on specific aspects of ARGing? Obviously Campfire and GMD (Along with many other talented people, I'm sure) were successful in bringing together two very important aspects of ARGishness (Story/Community). What about a Puzzle company or an interactions company? Heh, maybe a deaddrop company. (Evil UPS)

The only reason I ask is because we've seen a similar trend in the videogaming industry. As games get bigger, developers realize that not all aspects of the game can be made under one roof. So we get Mo-Cap companies and the like. Do you see this as the future of ARG?
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 4:01 pm
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FLmutant
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Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 244
Location: Orlando, FL
Marrec wrote:

I just love asking you questions.


Heh heh.

Marrec wrote:

So do you think in the future we are going to see succesful companies or groups that focus on specific aspects of ARGing?


I think so, to some extent. ARGing is such a broad category, really. I keep thinking of Regenesis as an example (collaboration between online storytellers and television storytellers, anyone?) Another example is Dave Szulborski, who'd I think of as a professional ARG designer but also works in collaboration with others (add him into the collection of people, for example, that worked on Heist as the lead puzzle creator of the insidious SD Cards.) By the time I can talk more about Stove, you'll find a number of familiar names coming up again under that "collaboration" banner.

If you take a look at this page on the GMD Studios site, you'll see a colorful little illustration of just how complex collaboration can become: that chart is actually an illustration of a part of the team on the "Sacred Urns" ARG. Good collaborations frequently go beyond just clear cut roles or specialities, but builds out a team capable of alot more than any one group.

Marrec wrote:
The only reason I ask is because we've seen a similar trend in the videogaming industry. As games get bigger, developers realize that not all aspects of the game can be made under one roof. So we get Mo-Cap companies and the like. Do you see this as the future of ARG?


I think so, yeah. But then I have hopes that the future of ARGs is alot more cross-media than future of videogaming per se. Because any aspect of reality can be appropriated into alternate reality, that gives you a much broader canvas that you could paint upon than platform gaming (and thus, even more need for additional specialities.) "Size" is one part of that (I'd prefer to think of it as "creative complexity" rather than just scope), but multi-disciplinary thinking is another huge part of that.


Brian

PostPosted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:59 am
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